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London 2012: Office productivity will drop during Games, but employers can still profit

Consultant says Olympic games are a costly distraction for employees, but employers can use them to build up a scarce resource -- workplace morale

Michael Phelps (top) and Ryan Lochte take part in a training session of the U.S. swimming team at the main pool of the Aquatics Centre before the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games in London July 23, 2012. REUTERS/David Gray (DAVID GRAY / REUTERS)

If competition in the 2012 Olympic Summer Games unfolds according to predictions, August 2 we’ll see a showdown between American swimming superstars Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte in the final of the 200-metre individual medley.

It’s the type of high-stakes confrontation that makes broadcasters salivate; two of the best-known athletes in the games competing for a gold medal and glory. The eight finalists will crouch at the starting blocks at 8:16 p.m. in London, and less than two scintillating minutes later one will have claimed an Olympic title on prime time television.

But in Toronto we’re five hours behind London, which means if you’re watching that event live you’re probably watching on company time.

Hardcore sports fans might book time off work to watch Olympic events, while others might take advantage of unprecedented live streaming options to watch action at the office.

Either way, costs add up.

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Quickly.

In March the Chicago-based executive placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas calculated that U.S. workers had been paid $175 million (U.S.) in the time they took to watch the first two days of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Spread that hysteria across the 19 days of the London Games and the impact on productivity is staggering.

“There are 142 million people working in the U.S. right now, and if just half of those people spend 10 minutes a day watching the Olympics (during work)… that comes out to an enormous amount of lost time,” says Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John Challenger. “That means wages.”

Between the opening of competition on Wednesday and closing ceremonies Aug. 12, Olympic coverage online and on television will be nearly impossible to avoid.

Canada’s Olympic Broadcast consortium has scheduled 1,114 hours of television programming, along with 2,000 hours of events streamed live online.

And the most dedicated Olympic addicts plan to consume as much of that content as possible.

The Olympics present a dilemma for employers for the same reason the present an opportunity for broadcasters and advertisers – they are appointment viewing that audiences would rather watch live than record.

McMaster University marketing professor Manish Kacker points out that the explosion of social media in the four years since the Beijing games magnifies the appointment effect.

“People have a greater ability to engage with friends and family during live events,” says Kacker, who teaches at McMaster’s DeGroote School of Business. “That makes the attraction of watching an event live much greater than watching it recorded.

So what’s the best way for office managers to counterattack the Olympics and their weapons of mass distraction?

Don’t fight back.

Instead, Challenger says, employers should accept that the Olympics will siphon even the most dedicated employee’s attention, then embrace the Games as a chance to boost workplace morale.

“Companies are looking for ways to bring people together and create the cohesion they used to have,” Challenger says. “If you can find something they can relate to each other round, that’s a good thing even though it’s very costly.”

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